Acknowledgements

This report was researched and written by Nik Steinberg, researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division. Daniel Wilkinson, deputy director of the Americas Division, Joe Saunders, deputy program director, Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor, José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas Division, and Rebecca Schleiffer, advocacy director of the Health and Human Rights Division edited the report.  Americas Division associates Paola Adriazola, Eva Fortes, and Kavita Shah contributed to logistics, production, and translation. Americas Division interns Natalia Escruceria, Cesar Francia, Sergio Garciduenas-Sease, Cecilia Garza, Viviana Gomez, Carly Graber, Hannah Kim, Alexandra de Mesones, Alana Roth, Max Schoening, Alison Silveira, and Sophia Veltfort provided invaluable research support.

Human Rights Watch is deeply grateful to the Cubans who shared their testimonies with us. As this report documents, Cubans take a considerable risk in discussing human rights with outside organizations. Nevertheless, scores of Cubans agreed to speak with us about the repression they endured. Three of those individuals—Rodolfo Bartelemí Coba, Enyor Díaz Allen, and Juan Luís Rodríguez Desdín—were arrested after speaking with us. Others were harassed, threatened, or detained. Human Rights Watch also thanks the individuals who provided guidance in the research and planning of the fact-finding mission to Cuba, who have asked not to be named so as not to compromise their access to the island.